# Rayyan review (2026): is the free plan enough? > Systematic review screening with AI relevance predictions Checked Nov 12, 2026 ยท graded Nov 12, 2026 by ToolGPA. Rayyan is a web platform for running systematic and literature reviews. Teams import references, remove duplicates, screen titles and abstracts together, and extract data. Higher plans add PRISMA diagrams, PICO extraction with AI and risk-of-bias tools, and the institutional plans add the ResearchPilot AI assistant. - **Category:** AI Research Tools - **Made by:** Rayyan - **Website:** https://www.rayyan.ai - **Runs on:** Web - **Who should skip it:** Tight if you stay free: 3 active reviews and 2 free reviewers. - **Facts last checked:** Nov 12, 2026 ## Pricing As of Nov 12, 2026, Rayyan has a free plan, and paid plans start at $4.99 per seat / month, billed annually ($8.33 billed quarterly). - **Pricing model:** Free plan - **Free plan:** Free forever: 3 active reviews, 2 free reviewers, 1 sample, duplicate detection and AI relevance predictions. - **Free trial:** None listed. | Plan | Price | What you get | | --- | --- | --- | | Free | $0 | 3 active reviews, 2 free reviewers, 1 sample, limited mobile app access, duplicate detection and AI relevance predictions. | | Essential | $4.99 per seat / month, billed annually ($8.33 billed quarterly) | Adds PRISMA flow diagrams, 5 free reviewers, auto-resolved duplicates and unlimited mobile app access. | | Advanced | $8.33 per seat / month, billed annually ($13.33 billed quarterly) | 9 active reviews, 10 free reviewers, unlimited samples, AI extraction of PICO data, priority support and extra risk-of-bias tools. | | Business / Academic | $41.67 per license / month, billed annually | Starts at 5 licenses ($2,500 a year), sold through sales. Adds ResearchPilot AI, 250 free reviewers and 50 organization-wide reviews. | | Enterprise | Custom | Unlimited reviews, SSO / SAML, API access, a management console and dedicated support. | Read from https://www.rayyan.ai/pricing on Nov 12, 2026. Prices change, so confirm with Rayyan before buying. ## Ways to pay less - **Save up to 40% with annual billing** (Annual discount): The pricing page says annual plans save up to 40% against quarterly billing; Essential is $4.99 a seat annually against $8.33 quarterly. Source: https://www.rayyan.ai/pricing - **Discounts for academic institutions** (Education): The pricing page notes that discounts are available for academics on the Business / Academic plan. Source: https://www.rayyan.ai/pricing ## Key features - **Screening with AI relevance predictions:** Reviewers include or exclude references while the tool predicts relevance. Every plan, including the free one, lists AI relevance predictions. - **Duplicate detection:** Duplicate detection is on every plan. Auto-resolving duplicates is listed from the Essential plan up. - **Team workbench and samples:** Reviews can be divided between team members and randomized into samples, with more than 15 workbench facets for analyzing decisions. - **PRISMA diagrams and PICO extraction:** PRISMA flow diagrams start on Essential. Advanced adds AI extraction of PICO data. - **Risk-of-bias tools:** The Advanced plan lists the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale and the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool, and the site announces a Risk of Bias feature. - **ResearchPilot for institutions:** The Business / Academic plan and above include ResearchPilot, which the site describes as AI search, screening and extraction for institutions. ## Good for - Students and solo researchers running a first systematic review on a free plan - Small review teams that need dual screening at a low per-seat price - Universities buying licenses for many reviewers ## Worth knowing - The free plan stops at 3 active reviews and 2 invited free reviewers. - ResearchPilot AI, 250 reviewers and organization-wide management need the Business / Academic plan, sold from 5 licenses. - SSO / SAML and API access are listed only on the Enterprise plan. - The site mentions a mobile app, but the pages read do not say which platforms it covers. ## ToolGPA grades **GPA: 2.6 out of 4**, graded Nov 12, 2026. Rayyan screens papers for systematic reviews with AI relevance predictions, and it starts free. But the free plan stops at 3 active reviews and 2 free reviewers, and the ResearchPilot AI is on the Business plan, sold from 5 licenses at $2,500 a year. - **Value for money: B.** Essential is $4.99 a seat a month billed yearly, and Advanced is $8.33. That's in the cheapest quarter, which starts at $7.50 for the category. Business is $41.67 per license, from 5 licenses. - **Free plan and trial: B.** Free forever with 3 active reviews, 2 free reviewers, a sample, duplicate detection and AI relevance predictions. One reviewer can live on that. - **Features: B.** Screening, duplicate detection, team samples, PRISMA diagrams, PICO extraction and risk-of-bias tools. Nothing in the listing shows a gap in screening itself, but PRISMA and PICO sit on paid plans. - **Ease of use: C.** No store rating on record. You set up a review, invite reviewers and run the samples. - **Platforms and integrations: C.** Web, with a mobile app mentioned but no platforms listed. SSO and API access are Enterprise only, and no integrations are listed. These are ToolGPA's own grades. Graded from this listing, whose facts were read from Rayyan's own pages on 12 November 2026. Not based on using the product, and shorter than our full reviews. ## Where it stands among AI research tools - Rayyan's GPA of 2.6 is higher than 33 of the 49 other AI research tools we grade, and level with 7. - It stands best on value for money (B, above 36 of 49) and worst on platforms and integrations (C, above 0). - Its paid plans start at $4.99 a month for each person, against a middle price of $10 for the category: 1 of the 35 others that charge start lower. - On features, ease of use and platforms it scores 2.3 out of 4. 2 tools score higher and cost less. The category's chart of price against score: https://toolgpa.com/charts/ai-research ## Keep it, or make your own? **Keep it.** To replace Rayyan you would be making a library of papers and sources to search. That is not a weekend's work, with an AI app builder or without one. It is one of the better ones too: its GPA of 2.6 is higher than 33 of the 49 other AI research tools we grade. It costs $59.88 a year. - You could not: A library of papers and sources to search. - You could not: Citation records for millions of papers. - You could not: Several people working in it at the same moment. - You could not: An API that other software can build on. - You could not: AI features, unless you pay a model provider for each request yourself. - You could not: The depth: we grade its features B, which means it covers the whole job. A judgement by ToolGPA from this listing, by rules that are the same for every tool. Nothing was built to test it. **Tags:** Research, Citations, AI features, Real-time collaboration, Public API ## Alternatives - [Elicit](https://toolgpa.com/tools/elicit): AI research assistant for literature search and systematic reviews. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/elicit-vs-rayyan) - [Scite](https://toolgpa.com/tools/scite): Research assistant that shows how papers have been cited. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/rayyan-vs-scite) - [Undermind](https://toolgpa.com/tools/undermind): AI literature search agent that reads hundreds of papers. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/rayyan-vs-undermind) - [Consensus](https://toolgpa.com/tools/consensus): AI search engine that answers questions from peer-reviewed papers. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/consensus-vs-rayyan) - [Iris.ai](https://toolgpa.com/tools/iris-ai): Enterprise tools that turn documents into AI-ready data. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/iris-ai-vs-rayyan) ## Sources The prices, plans, platforms and features above were read from these pages on Nov 12, 2026: - https://www.rayyan.ai/pricing - https://www.rayyan.ai Page: https://toolgpa.com/tools/rayyan Listed by ToolGPA (toolgpa.com).